Dobaaraa Movie Review: Time travel Anurag Kashyap style + Taapsee Pannu's slick act = mind, blown!
India Today
Anurag Kashyap's Dobaaraa is the kind of film that will have the audience putting together a jigsaw as they leave the theatres, for this Taapsee Pannu-starrer is just next level. Read our review.
The fact that Anurag Kashyap is an expert at twisting and turning plot lines is well known to aficionados of Bollywood. His latest, Dobaaraa, starring Taapsee Pannu and Pavail Gulati, the head-spinning tale of two people separated across time, delivers more of the same. It also has some time travel thrown riskily into the mix. Now, one could hardly expect Bollywood to deal with sci-fi without making a joke of it. However, Dobaaraa has managed to surprise us with its thrilling moments that will keep you at the edge of your seats till the end. A remake of the Spanish film Mirage, Taapsee Pannu and Anurag Kashyap's Dobaaraa hits the theatres on August 19.
Antara Bhatt (played by Taapsee) finds a TV in a closet of her new home and sees a 12-year-old boy talking to her from 25 years ago. Dobaaraa revolves around Taapsee's quest to save this young boy, who communicates with her through the television set. She does, but, fiddling with the fabric of time sends her down a rabbit hole. She wakes up the next day to discover that her life has changed, her husband is married to another woman, and her child never existed. The rest of the film follows Antara's frantic attempts to snatch her life back before it’s too late. The film is based on the backdrop of a storm, which, in fact, is very important to the central plot of the film.
Taapsee perfectly portrays Antara's frantic expressions after her life is disrupted by the butterfly effect of her actions. Along the way, Antara also encounters a good-looking cop, Chandan, played by Pavail Gulati, who is an important part of the plot. The story itself keeps the viewers on the edge, with little or no predictable twists. The comingling of time travel and the parallel universe lock neatly into place. Three cheers to the writer, Nihit Bhave, for that.
Little spoiler alert - the climax will tickle your brain with its open ending.
Watch the trailer here:
The film can’t be pinned down to merely one or two genres. It is not only sci-fi but also noir, family drama and historical drama. In fact, a bit of comedy is also thrown in. But, they are all present in the right doses. Small details have been looked into. For example, the light flickers whenever there is out-of-the-world energy around. Yes, we have seen such tropes before, but it still gives you goosebumps. The USP of Anurag Kashyap is evident throughout the film - from the screenplay to the performances. The director wanted to offer a tense thriller to his audience, and he successfully managed to do so.
